kevingregg on Nostr: Did not know this. Grateful for a return to traditional practices. ...
Did not know this. Grateful for a return to traditional practices.
quoting note13ex…u8msThe Advent Ember Days
By Masha Goepel
What Are the Ember Days?
The Ember Days are made up of a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in each season: spring, summer, fall, and winter. In each season, the days follow a particular feast day. In the spring, they follow Ash Wednesday. In the summer, they’re right after Pentecost. In the fall, the Ember Days fall after the feast of the Holy Cross. The winter days follow the feast of St. Lucy. During the Ember Days, we fast and abstain from meat for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of Ember Week in thanksgiving for the blessings received during the previous season, the fruits of the earth, and especially for our priests and seminarians.
Each season’s Ember Days are designed to thank God for the fruits of the harvest, particularly those fruits that we use in liturgy – olives, grapes, and wheat. In the winter, we focus primarily on thanking God for the olive harvest that gives us the holy oils we’ll use all year to bless and anoint. I have a few blessed oils on my own home altar – oils blessed in devotion to St. Joseph, St. Elijah, St. Paraskeva, and St. Anna, as well as two particularly devoted to Our Lady. During the winter Ember Days, I like to use these oils a little more often, blessing family with them and anointing our Christmas candles. There is a particular blessing for candles that we like to use in Advent:
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, bless these candles at our request. By virtue of the Holy Cross, Lord, pour upon them the virtue of Your heavenly blessing. You have given them to mankind to drive away the dark. May they, at this sign of the Cross, receive such blessing that wherever they may be lit or placed, the princes of darkness may depart and be afraid and fly in fear from those houses with all their helpers. Nor may they dare again to trouble or bother those who serve You, Almighty God, who live and reign forever and ever. Amen."
The candles are then sprinkled with holy water and anointed with an oil. Ideally, we ask our local priest to perform the blessing, but this blessing is one that the head of the household can perform as well.
Where Does the Term “Ember” Come From?
The term “Ember” comes primarily from a familial and casual use of the phrase quatuor tempora. As Latin gradually mingled with the vernaculars in various locations throughout Europe, many Latin words blended and changed to become new parts of new languages. Quatuor tempora slowly changed to Quatember and eventually just “Ember.” Since these days have been a part of the Church’s calendar since the fifth century at least, they’ve had a long time to fall into the lives and casual language of Catholics everywhere.
But during the changes of Vatican II, Ember Days were neglected. These days, though they’ve never been fully abandoned, Ember Days are unknown and unfortunately neglected by many Catholics.
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